Welcome to NOTRA, the National Oval Track Racing Association

The National Oval Track Racing Association (NOTRA) was formed in 1992 to encourage within each breed of registered Sighthound under a uniformly high standard of competitive oval racing. Included is an Oval Racing Championship (ORC) award program designed to reward outstanding racing Sighthounds when they have earned the necessary ORC points. The Rulebook, which has been modified over time via majority voting of member clubs, was created to offer a set of rules that can be operated by local race groups. The underlying goal and purpose to is to have fun with our hounds.

Race Dates

Whippets are a sighthound of medium sized that originated in England in the 1800’s, likely descending from greyhounds (with terrier thrown into the mix). Later, when hunting laws were repealed, whippets also became popular in the sport of dog racing. Whippets were first recognized by the English Kennel Club in 1891 and the American Kennel Club followed in 1888.

Whippet racing has been present in many varying forms since the mid-nineteenth century. One of the first forms of the sport was “rag racing” where the handler would hand slip the dog and the dog would run to a partner waving a white rag. Later, like greyhounds, whippets ran a mechanical lure. Today, whippets run   straight track (in the US through NAWRA, WRA or CWA), oval (NOTRA) or lure course (AKC, ASFA).  This site contains information regarding oval racing and the records of race meets and title information for those racers.

The web site for information on Other Breed racing can be found at: NOTRA Racing (Other Breed).

In NOTRA, "other breeds" refers to the non-whippet racers (as historically whippets have the greatest number of racers).  The other breeds include Afghan Hounds, Basenji, Borzoi, Cirneco dell’Etna, Greyhounds, Ibizan Hounds, Irish Wolfhounds, Italian Greyhounds, Magyar Agar, Pharaoh Hounds, Portuguese Podengo, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Salukis, Scottish Deerhounds, Silken Windhounds, and Sloughis